I am just overwhelmed with the Avaaz petition on Palestine: the world’s next nation as I instantly follow the signatures that are coming in and as of 13:50 pm on Tuesday July 26, 2011, over 445,388 people from all over the world have signed the petition and counting. The target is 500,000 and I am sure Avaaz will surpass this number easily. http://www.avaaz.org/en/independence_fo ... 633&v=9676

Scrolling down the names and countries makes me more hopeful than ever; not simply because these signatories reinforce the Palestinian application for full UN membership but because of the belief of decent people out there, irrespective of national, religious or political background in human dignity by responding to the legitimate aspiration of our Palestinian people of ending occupation and having our own state.

Seeing that there are signatories from Israel and from the Jewish Diaspora particularly uplifts my spirits. This says that there are many silent people everywhere in the world who share the same values and adhere to the same principles of respect for justice and fulfillment of basic human rights to each and everyone.

Thanks to an American friend in the Mid West I have been alerted to the petition and I have alerted others. What we seek as Palestinians is not further confrontation but an end to a seemingly endless conflict and the continued Israeli control of our people and occupation of our lands. We are not asking the impossible but simply to be like other nations.

While acceptance as full members to the UN will reassure us that the UN is once again the reference point for further political negotiations, it is not going to be easy for us post acceptance. The US Congress threatens to stop US aid to the Palestinians, Israel threatens to withhold taxes and custom duties collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and some countries, while acknowledging the right and the preparedness of the Palestinians to their own state, prefer to see a negotiated declaration of a Palestinian state.

One needs to acknowledge that the status quo in the Palestinian Territories today cannot be maintained indefinitely. While “state” institutions of the Palestinian National Authority are on par to state institutions of over 100 member states in the United Nations, yet we are denied membership because of the tilted position of the USA and of the control by Israel of the Palestinian Territories and as some would say of Capitol Hill. The Palestinian National Authority has become simply an authority that runs basic municipal functions with some attention to infrastructure needs. In addition, the PNA and the Palestinian people have become hostage to the aid provided by donor countries and agencies and hence this dependence has limited the options left to us. We cannot continue living on aid ad nauseam.

Some, particularly in Washington and Tel Aviv, insist that it is wrong to ‘unilaterally’ go to the UN. But multilateralism; i.e., negotiations with Israel sponsored by the USA not to speak of the Quartet and its feebleness , has proven that it is not a feasible proposal as its end objective is to see the Palestinians serve Israel and do its dirty control and hegemony part whenever the palestustan state is declared by multilateral agreement.

So we Palestinians have nothing to lose by going to the UN, come what may. Some among us are worried that nothing will change as of October 1st, 2011. So be it but if our application to UN membership is accepted or vetoed or postponed or denied altogether, we are sending a message to the world that we want our freedom and we want to be a nation-state like all other 193 UN member states.